The three women vanished almost a year apart from one another from 2002-2004.

Police said Michelle Knight disappeared in 2002 at age 20 and is 32 now. Amanda Berry, now 27, disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. About a year later, Georgina DeJesus vanished at age 14 on her way home from school.

They were discovered Monday, along with a 6-year-old girl who's believed to be Berry's daughter, after a neighbor heard Berry screaming for help.

"When the police officer came and let us know, I was just dumbfounded," said neighbor Juan Perez. "I still haven't been able to grasp it."

Authorities later arrested three brothers, ages 50 to 54. One of them, former school bus driver Ariel Castro, owned the home, situated in a neighborhood dotted with boarded-up older homes. His brothers, Onil and Pedro, were also arrested.

Neighbor Israel Lugo said he knew Ariel Castro and recently saw him at a park with the younger girl.

"Just basically a hard-working guy, that's what we all thought, and for him to have these girls inside the house for the past 10 years, and for us walk by the house every day, my niece, my daughters walk by the house – and not to know that they was there? It's, like, messed up," Lugo said.

Neighbors said Castro was well-known and had lived in the neighborhood for years.

"He was an awesome guy, he had a perfect mask," Perez said. "He had the mask – he was a charismatic, loving, nice guy, was able to talk to everyone, was able to talk to kids."

Police have not yet said how the girls were abducted or released any details about how their presence in the home was hidden for so long.

But Lugo said they might have been discovered earlier, in November 2011.

"My sister (was) coming home, it's like 10:30 at night, snowing outside, (and) she says, 'There's a girl at Ariel's house, upstairs, holding a little kid, she's beating on the window. I think there is something wrong,'" Lugo said. "I called the police. The cops came maybe a half hour later, pounded on the door maybe 15-20 times. There was no answer."

"Why? There's always a why?"

Mary Martinez said her husband grew up with Ariel Castro, and her daughter-in-law is cousins with DeJesus.

Martinez said Castro's home didn't have adjacent neighbors, at least recently.

"They were in an area where you couldn't hear them, because over here, these people are gone, and this here is gone and over there, they're gone, too," she said.

Martinez said Ariel Castro brought the 6-year-old girl police found in the home to her garage sale earlier this year.

"He was there, he was in the truck and he said, 'That's my little girl,' and then I'm looking at her and I'm like, 'OK, I didn't know he had another kid,'" she said. "I'm thinking, 'Wait a minute, he said his kids were grown,' so it gives you like a question mark."

"You know what's so strange, him and and his mom came up to us and asked us about the corner house here, because it's abandoned, and asked us how many rooms in there and everything like that," Martinez said.

"Why? There's always a why?" she asked.

"All I see are monsters"

Another neighbor, John Popow, told News 5's Karin Johnson that he grew up with the Castro brothers.

Popow said the Castros were "odd" and "different." He said Pedro was mild-mannered, while Ariel was friendly and fun, but didn't let people get close to him.

"There was no personal interactions, no personal stories," he said.

Popow said Onil was "the distant one" who disappeared for several years when he was a teenager.

"Now I step back after all this is happening and I'm like, 'Oh my God! What did I miss? This person came to my house,'" he said.

"You just feel so happy, and then the anger kicks in because I know these guys," Popow said. "You put your guard down, they're close to you, they're around your family, they were around my children.

"Now I look across the street and all I see are monsters, evil," John said.